Adjustable width buffing wheel hub construction for mounting elements in staggered relation



March 19, 1957 F. E. HENDRICKSON 2,785,516

ADJUSTABLE WIDTH BUFFING WHEEL HUB CONSTRUCTION FOR MOUNTING ELEMENTS IN STAGGERED RELATION Filed April 18, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. E/Tz- E. HE/wRm/mon/ ATTORN EY 2 She ets-Sheet 2 .M R0 Z we e H v s 8 5 6 mw a 2 m a I V: lllll I! II I m V. m mm |1:| u w m B m v F. E. HENDRICKSON FOR MOUNTING ELEMENTS IN STAGGERED RELATION March 19, 1957 ADJUSTABLE WIDTH BUFFING WHEEL HUB CONSTRUCTION Filed April 18, 1956 I IIIII II ATTORNEY [mm I ll I! H II II II I I il M II I 'l l l {1 ql lllil FIG4 Fritz E. Hendrickson,

United States Patent EL HUB South Elgin, lll., asslgnor to Norton Company, Troy, N. Y., a corporation of Massachusetts 7 Application April 18, 1956, Serial No. 579,099 4 Claims. (Cl. 51-193) This invention relates to boiling wheels and more particularly to a hub construction of adjustable width, and is a continuation-in-part of my co-pending application entitled Abrasive Polishing Wheel Element and Method of Making the Same, Serial No. 388,308, filed October 26, 1953, which issued as Patent No. 2,769,285, November 6, 1956.

Generally, of the squirrel'cage type. That is, the hub is formed of endplates with butfing element attaching bars extending therebetween. In the present instance, the bars are secured to one end plate and the other so arranged to slide along the bars to a position defining the desired width of the bufiing wheel. However, it is sometimes desirable to obtain a wheel of such width as to make it necessary to provide bar supports between the end plates. In a wide wheel, the centrifugal forces generated during rotation require the provision either of bars of excessive weight and cross-sectional area or of supports along their length.

The supports provided must be so constructed and arranged as to eliminate circumferential gaps between adjacent butfing elements. If unbroken gaps extend around the periphery of a wheel the spaced elements cause streaks to be formed when a work-piece is buflfed by such a wheel.

This undesirable feature is eliminated by providing spacers so constructed and arranged as to mount bufling elements on one bar which bridge the spaces between or overlap the bufling elements on an adjacent bar. Although spaces are formed between adjacent buffing elements on any one mounting bar, the spaces are not in alignment circumferentially with spaces between elements on adjacent bars.

It is, therefore, an important object of the present invention to provide a buflingwheel hub construction of variable width.

Another object of the present invention is the provision of an intermediately supported, variable width buffing wheel construction.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a butting wheel hub construction for supporting a plurality of buffing elements in such an arrangement whereby a work-piece is buffed without leaving streaks thereon.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a wide bufiing wheel hub having intermediate supports s'o arranged whereby bufling elements are mounted in staggered overlapping relation.

Still another and further object of the invention is the provision of a bufling wheel hub of variable width so constructed as to elfect the use of small and light weight parts.

Other and further objects of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the annexed sheets of drawings, which disclose preferred embodiments of the invention.

On the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the hub construction of this invention;

the hub construction of this invention is Figure 2 is a horizontal cross-sectional view, taken along the line 22 of Figure l, of a bufling element attaching or supporting bar;

Figure 3 is an end view, mounted arrangement of some of folded around the supporting bars;

Figure 4 is a side view, in elevation, of the bufiing wheel hub construction illustrating the supporting bar spacers by which buffing elements are arranged in staggered relation; and,

Figure 5 is a face view, as seen along the line 55 of Figure 4, illustrating the relation of adjacent spacers when mounted on the bufl'ing element attaching or supporting bars.

As shown on the drawings:

Referring now in detail to the several figures, the numeral 20 generally designates the mounting hub construction of this invention. As best shown in Figures 1 and. 5, the hub has end or face plates 21 and 22 centrally apertured as at 23 and 24 for mounting a drive shaft 25. A group of mounting or supporting bars 26, 26 are secured at one end to one of the face plates, shown herein as plate 21. The bars are circumferentially mounted adjacent the periphery of the face plate. Openings 27, 27 are provided in the other end or face plate 22 in alignment with and sized for slidingly receiving the mounting bars. 'By this construction, the bars prevent relative rotation of the. end plates and each bar forms a support for folded polishing or buifing sheets. It is preferred that the bars generally be rectangular in crosssection and each located in a plane extending radially of the hub. This provides maximum strength radially of the hub which is the direction of greatest stress during rotation.

In Figure 4 is shown one construction for securing the end plates in their adjusted positions. A spacer 28 slidingly embraces a reduced, end portion 29 of the drive shaft and is of a length to space the end plates 20 and 21 a desired distance. The end 30 of the drive shaft is threaded to receive a nut 31. which, when threaded home, clamps the face plate 21 against an abutment shoulder 32 of the drive shaft. It is to be understood, however, that the mounting arrangement of the hub on the drive shaft, as described above, is for purposes of illustration only a other constructions are equally applicable.

Shown in Figure 3 is an end view of a plurality of bufling elements 33, 33 each of which is folded medially and looped around a supporting bar 26. The number of folded elements mounted in side-by-side arrangement on each bar is dependent upon the width both of the elein elevation, illustrating the the bufling elements 7 ments and of the hub construction. Obviously, the wider the hub construction the greater the unsupported length of the supporting bars 26, Rather than provide the necessarystrength in the supporting bars by increasing weight and cross-section, support spacers 34, 34- have been added.

Each spacer has a plurality of radial fingers 35, 35 and each finger has an opening 36 for slidingly receiving a mounting bar 26. Alternate spacers are in finger alignment and the intermediate spacer has its fingers located between the fingers of adjacent spacers, all as shown in Figure 5. A central opening 37 in each spacer is sufliciently large to permit the free assembly of the driving shaft and end plate spacer through the hub.

The spacers are located as desired along the length of the hub' construction. As shown in Figure 4, the spacers 34, 34 are located equidistantly along the hub 20. It will be noted that the spacer fingers 35, 35 are so spaced circumferentially as to slidingly receive alternate mount-v ing or supportingbars 26. This is for a purpose now to be described.

0n alternate supporting or mounting bars are mounted bufilng elements 38 and 39, the only difference between them being in width. The intermediate bars have the longer buffing elements '39 only mounted thereon. These longer elements serve to bridge the spaces between the short and long elements on adjacent bars. The arrangement is such as to provide alternately short and long elements circu-mterentially of the hub. This arrangement of bufiing elements in staggered overlapping relation eliminates unbroken spaces between elements around the periphery of the wheel assembly thereby insuring the absence of streaks caused by the uneven bufiing of a work surface.

By the construction described above there is provided an intermcdiately supported, adjustable width hub construction for a bufiing wheel.

It is to be understood that the invention, shown and described herein, is to be. taken as a preferred embodiment and that various changes and modifications in form and structure may be resorted to within the spirit of the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A bufiing wheel hub assembly for mounting 'bufiing elements, comprising spaced end members, bufiing elemerit mounting bais between and connecting said end members, and at least one spacer support for said bars located between the end members, said spacer support engaging alternate bars, whereby a bufiing element mounted on one bar extends across said spacer support engaging an adjacent bar.

2. A bufiing wheel hub assembly formounting butting elements in staggered relation circumferentially of the hub, comprising spaced end members, buffing element mounting bars extending between and connecting said end members, and a plurality of spacer supports for said bars spaced between the end members, said spacer supports engaging alternate bars, each spacer support engaging different bars than 'an adjacent spacer support whereby a bufiing element mounted on one bar extends across a spacer supporting an adjacent bar.

3. A buffing wheel hu'b assembly for mounting butting elements in staggered relation circumferenti-ally of the hub, comprising spaced end members adapted to be mounted on and rotate with a shaft, one of-saidend members having a plurality of openings arranged in a circumferential series, a plurality of buffing element mounting bars secured to the other end member and arranged in alignment with and oomple'mentally shaped to slide through said openings in the one end member to-provide a longitudinallyadjustable hub, and a. plurality of Spacer supports for and spaced along said bars between the end members, each spacer support extending between alternate pairs of opposite bars and adjacent spacer supports extending between alternate pairs of bars whereby a bufing element mounted on one bar extends across a spacer supporting an adjacent bar. 1

4. A buifing wheel hub assembly for mounting bufling elements in staggered relation circumferentia-lly of the hub, comprising spaced end members adapted to be mounted on and rotate with a shaft, one. of said end members having a plurality of openings arrangedin a irq cumferential series, a plurality of bufling element mount-v ing bars secured to the other end member and arranged; in alignment with and oomplemcntally shaped to slide through said openings in the onecnd memberto provide a longitudinally adjustable hub, and a plurality of spacer supports for and spaced along-said bars between the-end members, said spacer supports having a body portion with radially extending and circumferentially spaeedi fingers having mounting bar openingslherein, the fingers oi each spacer support embracing alternate .mounting; bars, and the fingers of one spacer supportembracingdiflerentlbars than an adjacent spacer support wherebya bufiing element mounted on one bar extendsacross a spacer support embracing an adjacent bar.

References Cited in the file of this patent.

UNITED STATES 'PATENTS 743,195 Rem-mele Nov. 3, 1903 2,015,646 Sept; 24, 1935 2,017,925 Siefen Oct. 22, 1935 

